Nora Blue's Mermaid Party!

A baby's first birthday party should be memorable, fun, and just darling! I worked to incorporate sea elements, bold colors, patterns and textures to fashion a Mermaid theme inspired by a doll that my daughter adored. The party was held in our backyard on a June morning. I went with 11 AM because the heat in Georgia can be brutal and we also wanted to serve lunch to our guests.

In choosing any ocean theme for a party, the canvas is not entirely blank, but it is flexible enough because the resources available can be easily tailored to another theme- pirate, Dory, Bubble Guppies, etc. Also, it can be specific to gender, with more masculine elements, or feminine elements. Since I am not a fan of "characters", I wanted the decor to be playful, yet unique, and with a touch of soft textures appropriate for a one year old.

The backdrop was created with a shower curtain I found at Good Will. I added tissue poms on the top and twisted crepe paper on the sides to create the look of coral and seaweed and to also visually frame it. I used a DIY watercolor pennant banner from Michaels and peel and stick stickers to spell out "Happy Birthday Nora!". The same banner was used for her high chair to spell out "One". I also used tissue fringe between flags to add in more texture.

The tablescape was made up of super cute snack ideas: crab oranges, clam cookies, goldfish (no assembly there, other than pour in a bowl!), and ocean water. All recipes can easily be found on Pinterest or Google. My husband "manned" the gril where we had hotdogs and burgers. The cake and smash cake were from Wal-Mart bakery, inspired by a duck baby shower cake (as I do not prefer characters), they left the plastic ducks off and I crafted a topper out of paper straws and scrapbook paper to look like my daughter- a little bald mermaid! The coral is made from cut pool noodles and tissue paper.

For activities, we had several kiddie pools. One, filled with sand for a treasure hunt (also served as favors) and the others with water for swimming!

As much work goes into planning and hosting parties- it is always, always, always worth it! I am blessed to have been able to create such a beautiful and fun party for my Nora Blue. Second birthday party, here we come!

• What People Ate

  Hamburgers, Hot dogs, Chips, "Clam" Cookies (sugar shell cookies, buttercream, and gum drop pearl), "Crabbie" Oranges (candied oranges with toothpicks and candy eyes), and Goldfish

• What People Drank

  Ocean Water Punch (Sprite, Blue Hawaiian Fruit Punch)

• Desserts

  Mermaid Cake

• Party Favors

  Gold coins, necklaces, stickers, shovels and pails from a sand treasure hunt.

• Activities / Games

  Two mermaid kiddie pools and the sand treasure hunt.